I delivered yesterday some Tee shirts to a group of kids at the foothills of Cascade Mountains. Children were completing a survival week run by Wolf Camp from Snohomish, Washington. Sitting in a comfortable shade of a large tree, the small group of youngsters demonstrated the actual skills they learned that week and shared their stories. Presentation was very impressive: how to make a wood bowl using the fire coals, which native plants are safe to eat, a tea out of pine needles was shared, we saw how to build a warm shelter using forest debris. But the most exciting part came when the boys showed us how to start the fire. No matches, of course… It took less than 10 minutes using their handmade tool of tied sticks (even though the original attempts took couple of hours, we hear…). They shared then how their appreciation changed for fire and water, their meaning to life, driven by their first hand experience. It was very touching.
Adults gathered in circle looked with pride at the camp participants, grateful for sharing this experience and applauding, just like their kids when the fire was born. At the same time it was hard not to reflect on how far we are now from appreciating the most fundamental basis of survival. Majority of us have shelter in warm houses full of asbestos insulation, we have stores full of neat cardboard boxes full of well preserved particles called food and fire flowing at will by flipping a switch. Don’t misunderstand me – I would never express any interest in living in a cave again. Proponents of sustainability by giving up any and all progress are unrealistic and ineffective. It would not resolve much for our civilization as it is.
But to disconnect completely, as we do now, from understanding, caring and valuing the actual 
sources of shelter, fire, water and food – is counter-survival. It leads to abuse of Nature close to the point of no return - putting toxic debris, sprays, sludge in waters, air, soil and consequently in our foods – escapes rationalization. We create modified plants, our food sources, so they would withstand these toxins and then feed it to our children and our animals. We put enough preservatives in “food” so it can stand on a shelf for weeks, how are they suppose to magically decompose in our stomachs? We spray cotton crops with toxins so insects can’t touch it and then we sleep on it. Any logic here?
Let’s start by waking up every day and as we look up to the sky for the sun, let’s give our thanks to the trees for still being there for us, despite everything; to soil still willing to bear us plants, despite everything; to the life around us still willing to persist and forgive us and share with us. Let’s don’t forget to thank the fire for still willing to be born.
